Dive Summary:
- Experts from a Stanford University Project called Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, and Engineering say that researchers aren't doing enough to incorporate sex and gender analysis into their work, and that doing so would result in better science.
- The Gendered Innovations project has produced 14 studies since 2009--including one that have found results including that men are left out of osteoporosis studies and another that found government auto safety testing doesn't use any crash dummies designed to mimic a pregnant woman--and currently suggests 11 different ways sex and gender analysis can be incorporated in various stages of research.
- According to Men's Health Network co-founder Ron Henry, the Gendered Innovations case studies could benefit from bigger budgets that allow more findings and the research staff should also step back to look at their own gender biases.
From the article:
Researchers in medicine and science continue to focus on male animals in their trials and experiments. Men are left out of osteoporosis studies. And government auto safety testing doesn't use crash test dummies that are designed to resemble pregnant women. Efforts to include sex and gender analysis, such as guidelines by the National Institutes of Health instructing grantees to include women and minorities in clinical research, have been around for more than a decade. But researchers are not doing a good enough job of incorporating such analysis in their work, say experts involved in a Stanford University project called Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, and Engineering. They say that doing so would lead to better science. ...